Protect Our Patriarch

Chapter 14 – Biological legion!

Nine-Star Insect King!

The corners of Wang Shouzhe’s mouth twitched a couple of times. Fifth sister never flaunted her talent, but in private, she was rather unnerving.

“Buzz!”

The fist-sized Nine-Star Insect King opened its carapace and its membranous wings fluttered rapidly in response to her.

At the same time, Wang Luojing pulled out a small emerald bamboo flute from her waist and brought it up to her lips to play. It was a unique rhythm with a sharp and high-pitched sound.

But the Nine-Star Insect King was very familiar with that sound. It vibrated its wings, and emitted a continuous buzzing sound. The rest of the smaller nine-star insects in the box spread their wings and flew out, surrounding their king like an unpredictable cloud.

Under Wang Luojing’s command, the Nine-Star Insect King took the lead and headed towards the wheat field with a killing intent. A swarm of thousands of insects followed their king like a gust of wind. Although they were also ladybirds, the ladybirds of this Xuanwu world were obviously more ferocious.

They landed on one of the shrivelled wheat ears, caught an aphid and began to feast on it. Their fighting prowess was far beyond that of the lacewing larvae. In 15 minutes, each of the nine-star insect had killed at least five or six aphids.

Such a biological legion was truly invincible.

“Luojing, well done, well done.” Wang Shouzhe was delighted and appreciative, “With a skill like yours, our Wang clan’s food can be saved.”

“Fourth brother, it’s not enough.” Wang Luojing shook her head and said, “It’s only 10 days from the grain-filling stage to maturity. More delays means higher chances of lower yields.”

Her grandfather, Wang Xiaozhi, has been a professional farmer all his life, and she was familiar with farming from childhood. Without saying a word, she pulled out two large, arm-thick, withered coloured worms from the lacewing worm box.

“Fourth brother, these two lacewing worm kings have produced too many eggs, and I’m afraid they won’t live for another month.” Wang Luojing said with some heartache and guilt, “Let’s hope they will make one last effort for the family in their final hours.”

With that, she played the emerald bamboo flute again, but this time, she played a very low sound which was completely different from the one she used to command the Nine-Star Insect King.

The two lacewing insect kings, whose colours were withered and grey, suddenly woke up, fluttered their wings, and flew off into the distance.

They were extremely fast and disappeared without a trace in just a few breaths. As they flew, their mouthparts were twitching and making low frequency sounds.

“Fourth brother, the lacewing king has the ability to gather partners.” Wang Luojing said, “I hope they can return with more partners. There are increasingly fewer lacewings in the wild now. Only a few are left in the mountains.”

Wang Shouzhe thought about this. The odds were that the pesticides introduced by the Zifu Academy not only brought about a reduction of aphids, but it also led to the decrease of the lacewing population.

Wang Shouzhe was concerned that a disaster might strike since there were many pesticide resistant aphids, but the lacewing population did not recover.

An hour later, one of the lacewing kings returned with a powerful army of lacewings which darted across the wheat fields, feeding frantically on the aphids. Even more frighteningly, they began to lay eggs on the leaves of the wheat ears as they consumed the aphids.

By the time it was dark, another lacewing king returned, bringing back more of its kind. The dense army of lacewing insects made Wang Shouzhe wonder if there were enough aphids in the thousands of mu of wheat fields for them to eat.　　

The large number of eggs laid would hatch in just a few days, and the small larvae should not be underestimated.

Such a spectacular scene gradually attracted the attention of the tenant farmers, who then reported it to Wang Xiaozhi. When he arrived later and realised that it was his granddaughter, Wang Luojing, who was controlling the spirit insects, he was so shocked that he was rendered speechless.

Then, he burst into tears and murmured, “This time we are saved, the Wang clan is saved.”

“Fourth grandfather, our two other farms also have quite a lot of crop.” Wang Shouzhe said, “I won’t get involved in the details.  Fourth grandfather should discuss this with Luojing yourself.” Although the sericulture farm mainly focused on silkworms and mulberry, the farm also grew a lot of wheat.

“This ……” When Wang Xiaozhi heard that he had to discuss the matter with his granddaughter, and the youngest of all granddaughters to boot, his face fell.

“Four grandfather, if you feel Luojing is superfluous, I can take her back so that she won’t get in the way here,” Wang Shouzhe said with a smile.

“Not superfluous, not in the way.” Wang Xiaozhi hurriedly shook his head, his old face twisted for a moment, and he tried to ingratiate himself with Wang Luojing with a smile, “Luojing, we still have to find a way to save the other two farms. What do you need? Just let grandpa do it.”

Wang Shouzhe smiled. Although Wang Yaozhi, the old man, was stubborn and patriarchal, but his loyalty and sense of belonging to the family was not a problem. If he could change the way he thinks, he could be a pillar for the Wang clan.

When he noted that Wang Xiaozhi has changed his attitude, Wang Shouzhe pulled him aside and said with a grave expression, “Fourth grandfather, it looks like the infestation is not limited to the Wang family.

“I don’t dare to say that the entire Longzuo county would be affected, but I’m afraid that the overall production near Chang Ning’wei will be reduced by at least 40 to 50 percent.”

“Isn’t that a good thing?” the stunned Wang Xiaozhi smiled nervously and said, “”Other families have reduced production, and our family has a good harvest…”

“In this world, there are often no absolutes between good and bad things.” Wang Shouzhe said in a cold voice, “Sometimes things that look good can often turn out to be bad.”

Wang Yangzhi was aghast, then reacted, “Shouzhe, you mean the other clans will be jealous of us?”

“It would be fine if they were just jealous.” Wang Shouzhe’s expression was very solemn “As the saying goes, do not worry about scarcity, but rather about uneven distribution (from the Analects). Things would be fine if everyone is similarly affected by the disaster.

“But if our Wang family have a good harvest, let alone those hostile families, even those families with whom we have good relationships with will bear enmity and ill will. One wrong move and my Ping’an Wang clan may become the target of public criticism.”

“What should we do? Now that my Wang clan is in a precarious situation, if we continue to…” Wang Xiaozhi was anxious. After all, he is the clan’s farming elder, and has scant experience in other areas.

“Fourth grandfather, don’t be anxious, sometimes bad things often turn out to be good again.” Wang Shouzhe smiled confidently, “It depends on how we can work this out and turn the situation to our advantage.

“Let’s take a look at the three clans – the Changning Xu, Shanyang Gongsun and Shanyin Liu clans have intermarriages with our Ping’an Wang clan for a long time. Our relationships are intimate, so naturally, we must find ways to assist them.”

Among the three clans, Wang Shouzhe had the best impression of the Shanyang Gongsun clan, not only because his birth mother was from the Gongsun clan, but also because of the clan’s more open and cheerful culture, which did not give the rather downtrodden Ping’an Wang clan, the cold-shoulder.

Of course, this was also due to marriages between the official lines, as the current head of the Gongsun clan, Gongsun Mo’s grandmother, Wang Lingdie, is from the fourth generation of the Wang clan’s official line.

The Changning Xu clan itself was a very strong Xuanwu family, no less so than the Ping’an Wang clan at its strongest. During that time, the two clans intermarried and were closely related to each other.

It was a pity that later…

Wang Xiaozhi’s expression was complicated, and he nodded regretfully, “Yes, these three families are deeply connected to our Wang bloodline. It’s just a pity that younger sister, Zhenmei ……”

Wang Shouzhe knew what he was talking about. At that time, after the dramatic changes in the Wang family, in order to consolidate the relationship with the Changning Xu family, ancestor Longyan got Aunt Zhenmei, the official daughter of the fifth generation of the Wang, married to Xu’s eldest son.

Wang Zhenmei lived up to her mission. When she conceived her first child several years later, the relationship between the two families was the closest ever. It was a pity that Aunt Wang Zhenmei unexpectedly died in childbirth, resulting in the tragic end of mother and baby.

At that time, the Wang clan members were deeply grieved, and the males of the Xiao generation went to the Xu family in Changning and kicked up a big fuss. Even ancestor Longyan herself was so alarmed that she went personally to Changning to conduct an autopsy. They left only after they could not find anything suspicious or strange.

Since then, there has been a rift in the relationship, with intermarriages remaining in the direct line and no longer involved the official line.

Similarly, the relationship between the Shanyin Liu clan and the Wang clan was also somewhat convoluted and complicated to say the least.

But as complex as it is, the blood ties between them cannot be erased and they have to give each other a helping hand at critical moments.